Anyone who knows me well, knows "In Harms Way" is my favorite movie. I tracked down a copy of this book years ago through a second hand bookseller. The book is different than the movie and I like both equally. The Rock Torrey of the book is not John Wayne, but the story never fails to draw me in. After moving to Hawaii last year I read this one yet again. It now has a new layer of "interesting" as I get the subtle references overlooked previously and have seen the locations first hand. ( )

For my wife, Willie, who lived through all these things, and who loved Admiral Bill Halsey as much as I did.

First words

Framed by the open weather door of his cabin, where he stood peering through the obscure dawn toward Oahu's invisible shoreline, Captain Rockwell Torrey, USN, was not unlike the ship he commanded: tall, spare, angular, and plainly fabricated out of some hard gray substance that armored both man and cruiser against the weapons of a hostile world.

Quotations

I whish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm's way ... - John Paul Jones, USN

No captain can do very wrong if he places his Ship alongside that of an Enemy - Horatio Nelson